Catch up time
On the weekend of 11/11/07, a 3-day, I watched:
THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR (Clouse, 1975), BOUND TO LOSE (a Holy Modal Rounders doc), TRANSFORMERS again, just to seal that 'hell' deal, SLIPSTREAM which has Mark Hamill and a ton of references to Blade Runner, SEARCH FOR THE GODS with TV's Kurt Russell which until now was a lingering title on the shortest of my "video search lists" and that I got for only 2 bucks, SKINHEADS w/ Chuck Conners, a violent and exploitative thriller with an earnest performance by the lead skinhead that's unmissable, but so odd that I still can't decide if its genius or crap, CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE by Margheriti who I have grown very fond of recently, its about Nam and zombies and one guy's name is 'Charles Bukowski,' THUNDER WARRIOR 2 by DeAngelis, which features a Indian lassoing an attacking helicopter amongst other feats of buffoonery and has the single most inexplicably bizarre nonsequiter ending I have ever seen, and which its sequel THUNDER WARRIOR 3 utterly fails to address, although it does have John Phillip Law in it, but is lethargic and uninvolved and seems entirely unneccesary, and being one of the priciest tapes I have bought or rented lately, kinda sucks, FINAL EXECUTIONER, an Italian postnuke picture that was forgettable but for Woody Strode in a supporting role as a noble ex-lawman yearning for order, and finally, just for grins, the special edition of RETURN OF THE JEDI which went down damn easily this time thanks to being a markedly better film in comparison to almost everything that preceded it this month.
***
Monday I caught Margheriti's INDIO 2: THE REVOLT, which as expected, was perfectly accessible without having seen part one. Punchy Marvin Hagler 'stars' and his efforts to clearly enunciate common words should be commended. First hour seems draggy but is punctuated by a handful of cool parts mostly involving miniatures exploding, but the last half hour is balls-out mayhem and fighting that redeems all that came before it. At one point the villain cropdusts a village of fleeing natives with ACID (!!!) and shortly thereafter Hagler punches his fist through his chest (!!!!!!!!!).
Tuesday was the time for the "Incredible Lou Ferrigno" in HERCULES by Luigi Cozzi, and as I told a friend, this film will only make sense to you if you are a little kid or a crazy person, the only people who won't have a hard time buying that bitchy gods sit on the moon and plot our fates. Ferrigno recoils like a frightened girl when struck and one wonders what he thought the director was saying half the time. Just when you thought you couldn't laugh any harder, Hercules punches a bear into orbit like Wolverine in X Men #108.
Chased this one down with WAVELENGTH which honestly was just a kinda lame copy of ET and STARMAN and maybe HANGAR 18. Although to be fair I enjoyed the witty dialogue and curmudgeonly Keenan Wynn can usually be counted on to keep a movie bearable at the very least. Weird score by Tangerine Dream isn't their best but gets extra points for using a ton of whalesong which always sounds cool.
Tonight's features began with OPERATION NAM starring John Wayne's son Ethan, who as an actor isn't fit to smell even his father's shit, but if I let a little bad acting ruin my day I should probably kill myself now and get it over with. Anyway this turned out to be a pretty dynamite little piece of junk from Fabrizio "Thunder" DeAngelis, and while the rescue-the-Nam-POWs plot isn't terribly original, the movie manages to deliver some good shocks and good performances (mainly from John Steiner and Christopher Connelly) and seems uncommonly committed to its subject matter. Kept moving by a good score and lots of "yeah, right!" action, I give this one five Nape Strikes.
THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR (Clouse, 1975), BOUND TO LOSE (a Holy Modal Rounders doc), TRANSFORMERS again, just to seal that 'hell' deal, SLIPSTREAM which has Mark Hamill and a ton of references to Blade Runner, SEARCH FOR THE GODS with TV's Kurt Russell which until now was a lingering title on the shortest of my "video search lists" and that I got for only 2 bucks, SKINHEADS w/ Chuck Conners, a violent and exploitative thriller with an earnest performance by the lead skinhead that's unmissable, but so odd that I still can't decide if its genius or crap, CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE by Margheriti who I have grown very fond of recently, its about Nam and zombies and one guy's name is 'Charles Bukowski,' THUNDER WARRIOR 2 by DeAngelis, which features a Indian lassoing an attacking helicopter amongst other feats of buffoonery and has the single most inexplicably bizarre nonsequiter ending I have ever seen, and which its sequel THUNDER WARRIOR 3 utterly fails to address, although it does have John Phillip Law in it, but is lethargic and uninvolved and seems entirely unneccesary, and being one of the priciest tapes I have bought or rented lately, kinda sucks, FINAL EXECUTIONER, an Italian postnuke picture that was forgettable but for Woody Strode in a supporting role as a noble ex-lawman yearning for order, and finally, just for grins, the special edition of RETURN OF THE JEDI which went down damn easily this time thanks to being a markedly better film in comparison to almost everything that preceded it this month.
***
Monday I caught Margheriti's INDIO 2: THE REVOLT, which as expected, was perfectly accessible without having seen part one. Punchy Marvin Hagler 'stars' and his efforts to clearly enunciate common words should be commended. First hour seems draggy but is punctuated by a handful of cool parts mostly involving miniatures exploding, but the last half hour is balls-out mayhem and fighting that redeems all that came before it. At one point the villain cropdusts a village of fleeing natives with ACID (!!!) and shortly thereafter Hagler punches his fist through his chest (!!!!!!!!!).
Tuesday was the time for the "Incredible Lou Ferrigno" in HERCULES by Luigi Cozzi, and as I told a friend, this film will only make sense to you if you are a little kid or a crazy person, the only people who won't have a hard time buying that bitchy gods sit on the moon and plot our fates. Ferrigno recoils like a frightened girl when struck and one wonders what he thought the director was saying half the time. Just when you thought you couldn't laugh any harder, Hercules punches a bear into orbit like Wolverine in X Men #108.
Chased this one down with WAVELENGTH which honestly was just a kinda lame copy of ET and STARMAN and maybe HANGAR 18. Although to be fair I enjoyed the witty dialogue and curmudgeonly Keenan Wynn can usually be counted on to keep a movie bearable at the very least. Weird score by Tangerine Dream isn't their best but gets extra points for using a ton of whalesong which always sounds cool.
Tonight's features began with OPERATION NAM starring John Wayne's son Ethan, who as an actor isn't fit to smell even his father's shit, but if I let a little bad acting ruin my day I should probably kill myself now and get it over with. Anyway this turned out to be a pretty dynamite little piece of junk from Fabrizio "Thunder" DeAngelis, and while the rescue-the-Nam-POWs plot isn't terribly original, the movie manages to deliver some good shocks and good performances (mainly from John Steiner and Christopher Connelly) and seems uncommonly committed to its subject matter. Kept moving by a good score and lots of "yeah, right!" action, I give this one five Nape Strikes.
And finally we have another fun, if lesser Margheriti work, JUNGLE RAIDERS, one of the many Jungle adventure movies that followed in the wake of ROMANCING THE STONE and INDIANA JONES, which this film imitates in equal measure but to lesser effect. Except for all the stuff about the substitute "Short Round" kid with the talking pet cobra, that was something else. Another big finish for Margheriti in this one too with plenty of miniature mayhem and lots and lots and lots of stuff blowing up (SBU). Plus, yet another flamethrower-on-a-something from Mergheritti, this time a big bulldozer. Intermitent attempts at a jovial tone with silly 'comic' music grate the nerves with their unfunniness but as long as the movie shoots for 'adventure' its fairly solid, if panderingly PG-13 viewing.
posted by figurebuilder at 8:27 PM
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